Eddie Flint2010 Eddie Robinson Award WinnerThe second annual winner of the Eddie Robinson Award was Eddie Flint, a teacher and coach whose career spans six decades.

Flint was an all-city football and basketball player at Xavier Prep in New Orleans during the late 40's. He attended Xavier University where he was coached by Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Famer Alfred Priestley.

He started his teaching/coaching career in the 1950's and in 1962 he was named head coach at St. Augustine High School. Under his direction the Purple Knights won the LIALO State Football Championship with a win over his alma mater Xavier Prep in 1963.

The 1965 and 1966 seasons were perhaps the highlights of his coaching career as St. Aug went undefeated and won back-to-back state crowns.

In 1967, Eddie Flint and his Purple Knights carried the hopes of the African-American community when St. Aug integrated the LHSAA, essentially wiping out segregation in prep sports in the state.

Flint's work during the sixties laid the foundation for what would become one of the top high school football programs in the country. It was accomplished without gymnasium and locker room facilities. A public playground a block away from the school served as the team's practice field.

Flint served as a defensive assistant on the staff of Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Famer Otis Washington from 1970 to 1979. During that time St. Aug won three more state football titles.

Following that stint, he was instrumental in helping coach Wayne Reese rebuild football programs at Washington and Carver High Schools in New Orleans. Currently "retired" at age 79, Eddie Flint continues to work with Reese at McDonogh 35 Senior High School.

"Coach Flint mentors not just the kids, but my coaches and me," says Reese, the Roneagle head coach. "He is a great teacher who is able to communicate with everyone. He could talk to a rattlesnake and that snake will stop in his tracks and listen."

Story submitted by Ro Brown of the Greater New Orleans Sports Selection Committee.